Source:Palo Alto TPoD signing, 24 October 1998 - report by Drew Gillmore
The Path of Daggers Book Tour Report from Drew Gillmore, Palo Alto, 24 October 1998 I don't see anyone else doing this, and while it's still fresh in my mind...well, here's a report. Of sorts. I was drinking most of the time, so my recollection of details may be a little fuzzy. My Wheel of Time was definitely wobbling. I got to the Bay Area in time for the book signing. In fact, I got to Bill and Hawk's place in time to make Hot Monkey Love with a few people before we went to the book signing. Not that Hot Monkey Love was made, just that there would have been time for it if we had so chosen. Anyway, we got to Future Fantasy at 2:30. Chris Mullins, Michael Steeves, Batya and I all rode with Hawk, and we met up with Noell Milota at the bookstore. Bill wasn't feeling well and stayed at home. Wuss. (We missed you, Bill) Future Fantasy had a policy in place in which if you had not bought the book at their store then you had to wait until everybody that *had* bought a book and wished to have it signed went through before you. Fortunately, there weren't many people willing to spend full price at some rinky dink bookstore and the number of people who were in front of us was rather short. Also there at the bookstore were Eric Fulton and Brian-Something-Or-Other, Dave H-Someone and a couple of lurkers. Others in attendance at that time were a lot of people whose names I don't remember as I stood in line with Chris discussing some plot points with a lurker. Actually, that's a lie. We spent most of the time in line trying to figure out how we could get Jordan to sign a Terry Pratchett book, or a Goodkind. I can't remember which. Maybe it was both. We also discussed what questions to ask. Most were discarded as frivolous, or obvious RAFO answers. I hadn't thought about it too much, but fortunately Chris had, and he had a few that he let me borrow. The first question Chris channeled through me had to do with the female mega sa'angreal on Tremalking, and the Seanchan damane there. We were wondering if the female sa'angreal would have the same effect on female channellers as the male sa'angreal in Cairhien had on Rand. Our impression of events was that Rand did not willingly channel into the thing, but that it just pulled the One Power through him. Unfortunately, RJ answered the question with a "Yes, if they tried to channel through it." Uh. Okay. Whatever. My second question was whether or not we would get to see the Battle of Tar Valon or if it would happen "off-screen". He opened his mouth, hesitated a second and shot me down with a "Read And Find Out". Bastard. Chris used his moment with the Creator to open himself up to a huge RAFO, but *his* question was answered. Chris asked if Moghedien had been raped by Shaidar Haran. The answer was "Yes, among other things." I don't remember most of the other questions. A couple of interesting things I do remember, however. The first is that the reason tPoD seems short is that Jordan could not go any farther without writing a *whole* lot more. The stage it seems, is once again set. Another interesting thing was Jordan asking Hawk if she was into leather, and if she was "top, bottom, or switch". Dirty old man, indeed. Another interesting point that may just be my interpretation of things, is that someone asked if Lanfear had been raped as well, right on top of the Moghedien question, and he answered right away with a "No". It could be any number of explanations, but it seemed to me that it was a given that Cyndane was Lanfear from the context of the conversation. Like I said, just my interpretation. Someone else who was paying more attention could fill in here. The next thing we did was went to the Thai House to drink. Or at least, Darkelf and I drank, with a little bit of sipping done by Eric and Chris. However, Darkelf and I got married (Work *that* in, K-J) and consummated the marriage with a pitcher of Stout beer (Thanks, oh Dimly Lit Sprite). I taunted Noell with the thought that Cal would beat UCLA until with four seconds left in the game, I relented and admitted that, in fact, Cal would probably not be coming back. After that, things *really* get fuzzy. We went to Amber, an Indian Restaurant, and had food, and talked. Rick Moen, Rajiv, Phetsy, Paul Ward, and "Justin" showed up. Other people showed up, but they were sitting at the other table and I don't remember all their names. (Someone else is *really* going to have to help me out here...anyone make a total list?) Mansur Ward made a cameo. I had Chicken Vindaloo, that was supposed to be spicier than it was, according to Chris Mullins, but since I was already full of beer I couldn't taste much anyway. Somewhere in there my ex-fiancée showed up(1), and I mentally checked out for the evening. I remember going to Brian's apartment complex for the rec room there, more beer, lots of pool, then a jaunt to Bill and Hawks for an hour or so. At that point I had been up for somewhere near forty hours, and had drank sufficiently enough in my sleep depraved condition to make thinking straight a tricky situation. I'm not sure how it ended. Badly, one would assume, but you'll have to get that part of the story from someone who A) was there, and B) was *there*, if you know what I mean. -- Drew Gillmore www.leisureforce.com http://linuxmafia.com/~pam/POD_signings.html#la Alternate link: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan/msg/489f1f3b8fbf0f8f Category:Conversations with Robert Jordan Category:Reports from Fans